> The user is being asked to compensate for the laws of reality.
No the user is being asked to compensate for shitty design. I've yet to have a phone that dramatically loses signal when holding it, and all my phones have had internal antennas. If Apple can't do one of the basics of phone design (you know, making the cellular phone work) it is only and will forever only be their fault.
I stick my motorola phone under my leg (I'm saying literally under my fat ass) whilst in the company truck so I can feel it vibrate and still seem to get enough reception, even in dead zones, to receive texts and calls. If my phone can work through about a foot of flesh, then an iPhone should easily be working through an inch of flesh.
Engineering is about trade-offs. Pro - Better reception and less dropped calls than previous iPhones, Thinnest Smartphone on the market. Con - some people are experiencing diminished reception when the phone is held in a certain way. If you think the cons outweigh the benefits, don't buy it or return it, it's as simple as that. Apple doesn't give a shit, there will be 10s of millions of people this year who will perceive the benefits of the external antenna design as easily compensating for its negatives.
False choice. Why not have a phone with better reception and fewer dropped calls AND good reception no matter how the phone is held? If this a problem that can be solved with a 0.4" strip of tape, then obviously Apple had the option. They simply overlooked it.
Also, the issue isn't whether or not we're forced to purchase a product we don't like. That is a subtle straw man. The issue is whether or not Apple made wise engineering decisions, and whether or not Jobs is exhibiting the appropriate attitude towards Apple's customers, who WANT to spend their money on a nice iPhone, but are having trouble with Apple's shitty design.
Well, apple could have just added a telescoping antenna like the phones of 10 years ago, but that would seem to kind of break the aesthetic, wouldn't it?
If my phone can work through about a foot of flesh, then an iPhone should easily be working through an inch of flesh.
If the claims of it being solved with a bumper or layer of insulating material are accurate, then it does work through an inch of flesh, what it doesn't do is work when the flesh is electrically connecting two separate parts of the antenna system.
No the user is being asked to compensate for shitty design. I've yet to have a phone that dramatically loses signal when holding it, and all my phones have had internal antennas. If Apple can't do one of the basics of phone design (you know, making the cellular phone work) it is only and will forever only be their fault.
I stick my motorola phone under my leg (I'm saying literally under my fat ass) whilst in the company truck so I can feel it vibrate and still seem to get enough reception, even in dead zones, to receive texts and calls. If my phone can work through about a foot of flesh, then an iPhone should easily be working through an inch of flesh.